Chapter 29 Taxes and Corvée Labor (1/2)

On Shekou Mountain, a dozen geese, with more than 20 goslings, were eating leaves on the ground happily.

These dozen geese were twice as big as normal geese and were particularly good eaters.

Perhaps they had been eating grass with spiritual energy for a long time, and their tastes had become picky. They were unwilling to eat ordinary food without spiritual energy.

Er Gouzi himself was not so particular about what he ate. If it were not for cultivation, he would eat anything as long as he could fill his stomach.

They were spoiled because they could guard the house, their meat could be eaten, and their feathers could be made into clothes and quilts.

Er Gouzi fed the geese some grass and poured some water into the trough.

Then he watered all the crops planted on the mountain.

Although there was no land reclamation in the past six months, some vacant land was reclaimed and some ginseng was planted in addition to cultivation.

Now there are a total of ten acres of ginseng, three acres of Polygonatum, two acres of Cistanche deserticola, and one acre of chicken legs planted on Shekou Mountain.

A total of 16 mu of arable land was reclaimed.

The first batch of ginseng, polygonatum and cistanche deserticola planted have been used for more than 10 years.

The older the age of these medicinal materials, the more expensive they are, so Er Gouzi has never been willing to dig them.

When he prepared the enhanced version of Da Li Wan, he only used materials that were four or five years old at most.

As for the one mu of chicken legs, he found that this wild vegetable had a high yield after he cultivated it.

Both the leaves and rhizomes can be eaten, especially the rhizome at the bottom, which can grow thicker than an arm and one or two feet long.

Whether eaten raw or cooked, it tastes good. Except for a few used to make Da Li Wan, most of the one mu of chicken legs are used to feed geese.

In addition to these 16 mu of land, some places on the mountain that are not suitable for reclamation were planted with some persimmon trees and jujube trees in the first month of this year.

After his cultivation, it is now lush and has begun to bear the first round of fruits.

After Er Gouzi finished watering the land, he looked up at the sky. The sun had already emerged halfway from the eastern horizon.

It was time to go down the mountain.

Now it was time for tenants to pay rent and landlords to pay taxes.

However, this year, Er Gouzi had changed from a tenant to a landlord.

He rented all the 50 mu of land under Shekou Mountain to Agui's family for cultivation.

In a good year, 50 mu of land could yield about 200 shi of grain. According to the 50% rent, he could collect 100 shi of grain rent every year.

However, he still had to pay 60 shi of tax to the government for the 50 mu of land. Since Shekou Mountain was registered as a barren mountain by the government, he only had to pay 20 shi.

In total, he had to pay 80 shi of grain tax.

If he could pass the military examination in the future, he would be exempted from the tax on 100 mu of good land, and he would not have to pay tax on the uncultivated barren mountain.

This was the grace of the court to those who had made achievements, to encourage everyone to serve the court.

"Boss, everything is ready!"

Er Gouzi came to Agui's house. There were five or six strong men in his family. They had already packed 100 dan of grain and tied it to the wheelbarrow.

In addition, they invited more than a dozen strong tenants to help push the cart.

Er Gouzi followed Huang Laocai's example and invited everyone to have a full meal at Agui's house. There were even a few slices of pork in the dishes.

After the tenants had enough food and drink, they were full of energy and pushed the wheelbarrow at full speed.

Agui used to be an old tenant of Huang Laocai's family. He was very familiar with this kind of affairs. He took care of it all the way, and Er Gouzi didn't have to worry about anything.

"Boss, the territory of King Zhao is ahead. We have to prepare some money in advance."

Agui looked at Er Gouzi with a young face, and felt a little bit of the impermanence of the world.

Last year, he and Er Gouzi were both tenants of Huang Laocai's family. They walked hand in hand and even joked with Er Gouzi.

Now, Er Gouzi has become his boss.

When Er Gezi heard that the territory ahead was King Zhao's, he suddenly became alert, hid the sword in his clothes, and lowered his head to blend into the group of tenants.

Now King Zhao has learned his lesson. Every time he sees him, he hides in the mountains and refuses to show up.

"Boss, just prepare the silver and money. King Zhao never hurts anyone after receiving money. He is more trustworthy than the government."

Agui thought Er Gouzi was scared, and hurried to comfort him.

"I know, I'm afraid he will hide and not come out."

Agui didn't quite understand what Er Gouzi meant, and thought he was making excuses.

Not long after the group walked forward, a gong sounded in front, and King Zhao appeared as promised.

"I opened this road, I planted this tree..."

Before the pig kidney face finished his lines, he saw Er Gouzi carrying a door-board sword and looking at him with a smile.

"King Zhao, let's fight!"

"Ouch! My stomach hurts, it seems like I'm going to have diarrhea after eating something bad..."

King Zhao actually held his stomach and went back to the woods, and the group of bandits disappeared in an instant.

"Don't run, I promise, I will be gentler this time!"

King Zhao went back to the woods and saw Er Gouzi still carrying the door-board sword, standing on the official road waiting.

But he had made up his mind that no matter how Er Gouzi spoke sweetly, he would not go out to be abused again.

This guy was like a wild bull, full of brute force, and every time the swords collided, he was shocked and his hands and feet were numb.

After a few rounds, he was exhausted, his waist was sore, his legs were weak, his urine was bloody, and he had to be supported by his younger brother when walking.

If you join him in a fight, you won’t be able to rob again for the rest of the day.

With so many brothers under his command, so many open mouths, all waiting for the rice to fall into the pot, life is already overwhelmed, and there is no time for wrestling with a bull.

King Zhao hid in the woods and watched Er Gouzi leading the people away.

In order to prevent being killed and turned around, he hid for another half an hour before starting to open his business again.

This time, a larger unicycle team was stopped. After King Zhao finished reading his lines, he felt fierce in his heart and wanted to make up for the loss in the previous half hour.

"Do you also want to stop Master Xiucai's motorcade?"

A tenant farmer walked out of the team, feeling somewhat proud of the power of the scholar.

"Ah... bah!"

One of the bandits spat out a thick mouthful of phlegm with disdain.

"Who is the scholar?"

"Our King Zhao was also a martial arts scholar back then. He just didn't want to be angry with those bird officials, so he brought..."

"Ahem!"

King Zhao coughed a few times to stop the bandit from continuing.

"Anyway, everyone who crosses this road has to pay."

Seeing a group of bandits blocking the road with their swords and guns clear and determined not to let them pass, Zhang Youliang could only walk out with a dark face and handed over a piece of silver.

Although Wu Xiucai was exempted from taxes on 100 acres of land, he owned far more than 100 acres of land.

If he were alone, even if he couldn't defeat him, he could still rush over, but there were still so many grains and tenants, so he could only pay the money to buy the road honestly.

King Zhao took the broken silver, weighed it, and shook his head.

"You have so many wheelbarrows and so little money. Are you sending them to beggars?"

"Don't bully others too much!"

Zhang Youliang pressed the handle of the knife, feeling annoyed. He was a martial arts scholar after all, but these bandits didn't give him any face.

"Let me tell you, our King Zhao is in a bad mood today. It's best to just pay him and get out."

Finally, due to the situation, Zhang Youliang could only take out another piece of silver from his arms and hand it over.

After Zhang Youliang paid the money, he swore in his heart that he would destroy these bandits sooner or later. They were too arrogant...

On the other side, Er Gouzi naturally didn't know that because of his reasons, Zhang Youliang had to pay two pieces of money to buy the road.

He had already taken his tenants to camp in an open space in the county.

The night was uneventful, and with good luck the next day, I got into the queue to deliver food that day.

This time, he had experience and filled every bucket in the county government office with a big tip on top.

Even though he took such initiative, he still received a whip from the Yamen servant.

The yamen servant whipped him and all the people he brought with him.

Then he kicked the bucket with his feet to spill the grain, then filled it up again and kicked it three times.

It wasn't until all the 100 shi of grain he had brought was poured on top, and no grains were left, that the yamen servant finished cursing.

He was supposed to pay 80 shi in taxes, but he actually paid 100 shi in fine grain, and he was still scolded by the government officials as being unruly.

I don’t know what a good citizen should look like in the eyes of the officials.

After paying the tax, you have to have the county clerk sign a tax payment document.

In broad daylight, the clerk was sitting behind the desk and taking a nap with his eyes narrowed. Ergouzi had no choice but to give away a small piece of broken silver before he successfully obtained the document with the official seal.

Along with the tax payment document, there was also a notice levying corvee.

Based on the size of the land Ergouzi owns, one person will be required to serve as corvee this winter.

The destination of the corvee this time was to bring some of their own dry food and go to the southwest border to build city wall fortifications for a period of one year.

Just after paying the tax, he had to do corvee again.

The government has to collect corvee every year, whether it is building river embankments, civilians in war, or as small as building a house or digging a latrine for an official's family, they must collect corvee.

Most of the corvees had no food to eat and had to bring food from their own homes.

It doesn't matter if it affects farming or brings our own dry food.

Many hard laborers never returned and died outside without even being able to recover their bodies.

Anchang County is not far from the southwest border. It is said that just outside the border is the country of monsters and ghosts, which is the most dangerous.

In previous years, only about three out of ten people who were drafted to the southwest border came back alive.

Those who were lucky enough to come back only had half their lives left.

Ergouzi didn't want to do such hard labor, so he had to pay someone to do the hard labor on his behalf.

In previous years, many landlords and wealthy people did the same thing. As long as you can invite people to the government, they have no problem with it.

However, the price of this kind of hard labor that is almost certain to die is very high, almost the price of one life.

It seems that population prices will skyrocket again this winter.

After successfully paying the taxes, Ergouzi invited the tenants to a restaurant and had a feast.

30 people ate two dishes, one with rice and shredded pickles, and one with fried fat pork and dried radish.

There is enough rice to eat with an open belly. Some people ate seven bowls of rice in one meal.

After the tenants had finished eating, they all licked their bellies and praised the benevolence of their boss. At the same time, they cursed Zhang Youliang for not being a thing, for cutting iron on the tip of a needle, and for defrauding the tenants.

After eating, Ergouzi found Agui and showed him the official documents regarding the corvee collection.

"Agui, can you help me find someone to do corvee service for me?"

"Working hard in the southwest, I almost never come back. I wonder what price my employer will offer?"

"As long as the price offered by the owner is high enough, there will be people rushing to do the job."

When Agui heard this, he didn't feel any difficulty and only asked about the price.

Ergouzi thought for a while. He had no experience and was not sure how much it would cost, so he asked.

"How much does a life sell for now?"

"It depends on age. Young and strong men are the most expensive, costing about 20 shi of good rice. Old and weak people over 50 years old only need two shi of rice."

"The price of a woman also depends on her age and appearance. The most expensive one does not exceed 20 shi, and the cheapest one can be bought for a few dou of rice."

"If there is a disaster year, the price can be much cheaper."

Many tenants have the experience of selling their children, so Agui knows the market well.

"Then I will pay 20 shi, and you can help me find someone to do corvée."

As it concerns a life, Er Gouzi was rarely generous and offered the highest price of 20 shi.

"Is the boss really willing to offer a high price of 20 shi?"

Agui confirmed again. Generally, for this kind of corvée, there are many people rushing to do 10 shi of grain.

"Yes, 20 shi!"

Er Gouzi has always been careful with his money, but this time he didn't seem to be very smart.

"Boss, there's no need to look for anyone else, let me go?"

Agui looked at Ergouzi expectantly, waiting for the boss's reply.

"Agui, this is hard labor, you might die, you don't need to take the risk, right?"

"Besides, the harvest is good this year, even if you pay the rent, you should still have 100 shi of grain left, right?"

Ergouzi looked at Agui, they were familiar with each other, and felt that he didn't need to work so hard.

"Alas! This is because the weather is good and the harvest is good this year."

"We also have to pay 8 shi of household tax, 12 shi of head tax, 10 shi of tax for collecting firewood in the mountains, and sunlight tax..."

"The seeds for next spring sowing will require at least 5 or 6 shi of 50 mu of land."

"With this calculation, our family of more than ten people can still have 50 shi of food rations left, and the young boys in the family are particularly good eaters."

"I am already over 40 years old this year. I can only sell 10 shi of food with my life at most, and I don't have many years left. Now there is a good opportunity to sell 20 shi. If you don't go, you are a fool."

"With these 20 shi of food, I can save an acre of thin land."

"If I can come back alive, these 20 shi will be earned in vain, hehehe..."

Agui couldn't help laughing when he said this, feeling that he had gotten a great bargain.

Ergouzi thought back and thought that if he was given such an opportunity two years ago, he would also choose to risk his life without hesitation.

"Okay!"

"Try to come back alive."

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